Jump to content

Am I going insane or...?


Lightflame

Recommended Posts

Brandon Sanderson.

Brandon Sanderson.

B-R-A-N-D-O-N S-A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N.

16 Letters.

Please tell me I'm not crazy.

Nah. We all knew Brandon was Adonalsium anyway. He's using Allomancy to see far into the future of himself and others, and just writes these books from what he sees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone know what the '-ium' phonic means? Its used in a lot of contexts so I'm not sure (we get adonalsium and odium, but then we get atium too).

I don't, but it seems that in Roshar vocabulary, an h after a letter is considered one letter. Kasbal mentions that Shallan's name is one letter away from being a palindrome, and that all the 10 silver kindgoms were. They are named as follows:

Aimia (A palindrome by our standards)

Alethela (A palindrome if not for the h)

Iri (Again, a palindrome)

Natanatan (See above)

Makaôakam (Above, again)

Rishir (The same case as Alethela-one letter away from palindrome status)

Sela Tales (A palindrome with a space)

Shin Kak Nish (Note how the sh stays an sh instead of a hs. Still considered a palindrome by Rosharian standards.)

Thalath (Again, note how the Th is still a th instead of an ht)

Valhav (Like Alethela or Rishir)

Anyway, my little thing. Thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't, but it seems that in Roshar vocabulary, an h after a letter is considered one letter. Kasbal mentions that Shallan's name is one letter away from being a palindrome, and that all the 10 silver kindgoms were. They are named as follows:

Aimia (A palindrome by our standards)

Alethela (A palindrome if not for the h)

Iri (Again, a palindrome)

Natanatan (See above)

Makaôakam (Above, again)

Rishir (The same case as Alethela-one letter away from palindrome status)

Sela Tales (A palindrome with a space)

Shin Kak Nish (Note how the sh stays an sh instead of a hs. Still considered a palindrome by Rosharian standards.)

Thalath (Again, note how the Th is still a th instead of an ht)

Valhav (Like Alethela or Rishir)

Anyway, my little thing. Thoughts?

'ti' 'sh' and all similar sounds are just their own letter in Alethi as far as I can tell, hence Shallash's name and many others. They are actually perfectly symetrical, with lower ranking lighteyes having mostly-ketek names for fear of blasphemy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since this is a thread about insanity, it seems appropriate to be far too linguisticy.

Does anyone know what the '-ium' phonic means? Its used in a lot of contexts so I'm not sure (we get adonalsium and odium, but then we get atium too).

Actually, it's really -um, and that is a Latin case ending for neuter nouns of the second declension. The i is part of the stem (so, Ati-um, Adonalsi-um, Odi-um, etc).

For example, Adonalsium's proper declension is:

Sg. Pl.

Nom. Adonalsium Adonalsii

Gen. Adonalsii Adonalsiorum

Dat. Adonalsio Adonalsiis

Acc. Adonalsium Adonalsios

Abl. Adonalsio Adonalsiis

Voc. Adonalsium Adonalsii

Loc. Adonalsii Adonalsiis

While Odium's is:

Sg. Pl.

Nom. Odium Odii

Gen. Odii Odiorum

Dat. Odio Odiis

Acc. Odium Odios

Abl. Odio Odiis

Voc. Odium Odii

Loc. Odii Odiis

This ending is commonly added, even in the real world, to metals and elements (like einsteinium). For various linguistic reasons, -ium is usually added instead of just -um, but the quick explanation is that it helps the faux latin words to not sound too lame (einsteinium is much better than einsteinum, as americium is better than either americum and americaum).

The curious thing is that most shards aren't Latin based. It's Ruin, not Ruina, Preservation, not Custodia, Devotion, not Devotio, etc. Odium and Adonalsium are the odd ones out.

I don't, but it seems that in Roshar vocabulary, an h after a letter is considered one letter.

Pretty standard, really. H is a sad, pathetic letter that often gets left out of other languages, since really it just designates a heavy breathing sound, not a proper consonant or vowel. In Greek, for example, it is either left out entirely or signaled by a simple ' (as in ἱστορία, aka 'istoria, aka history).

More relevant here, though, is the TH sound, which is technically a single letter in many languages (because they have a letter for it: it's a digraph in English), as is sh (I believe, I'm not as interested in that combination as I am in th). For example, theta (θ), eth (ð), and thorn (þ) can all be translated into modern English as th, and vice versa.

So what is probably going on here is native linguistics being translated into English. H by itself probably doesn't always count as a letter, and its a part of a digraph in other places. So Valhav would be closer to Val'av, while Thalath is more of þalaþ, and Rishir is closer to I-don't-know-haven't-I-given-enough-useless-information-yet.

*ahem*

So, to bring this all around, clearly Adonalsium is related to consonant shifts between languages. Or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It this case, it's most likely an example of "Translation Convention," with the intent to get the flavor of the words right.

That is, in Brandon's mind these correspond to fictional things in a fictional setting with fictional languages, but they have a "feel" which people in-universe would get from hearing them. In this case, using things like Latin or French roots in the "translation" into English would carry some of the same emotional baggage to us, without having a strict relationship with the faux roots in the real world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you study languages at all? That was awesome :D.

Always glad to provide interesting information, especially when it's about language. While I'm not a linguist, I've had historical training, and from that I "know" Latin (Classic and Medieval), Ancient Greek, modern German, Old English, and a smattering of Icelandic and Spanish. And by "know" I mean I can barely muddle through a translation provided I have a dictionary by my side and plenty of paper to take notes on, and recently had a refresher of some sort. I'm still working through Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis and it is very slow going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

It's actually just that sounds of "th" and "sh" are combined into one character in Alethi.

 

What about Valhav? Wouldn't that make lh a single character as well? That seems a bit odd because it becomes val-hav with syllables added in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the "lh" is supposed to be an English pronunciation equivalent, but don't quote me on that.

EDIT:

The people in-world see it as a palindrome, so it must just be a translation quirk.

“Even our names. Yours is nearly perfect. Shallan. One letter off, an ideal name for a lighteyed woman. Not too holy, but ever so close. The original names for the ten Silver Kingdoms. Alethela, Valhav, Shin Kak Nish. Perfect, symmetrical.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...